With a little help from good friends (thanks Matt!) I was lucky enough to let a dream come true this June. I've always wanted to own the REAL MINI - no phony BMW stuff here *G* - and finally, I do - since June 3rd, 2002!
My baby's a still quite shiny 1991 Cooper (the one still with a carburettor, pre-injection) in the one and colour for British cars: British Racing Green. It's been standing in an old factory since 1996 and only got 24600 km when I bought it.
Since a couple of days, it's rolling on 165/60 R12 tires, a big improvement against the original 145/70 R12 winter tires.
Even if there're very few rust-infested places, I've still got some work to do on the bodywork. From time to time, I hope to post some progress here :)

additional information resources:

These are a couple of definitely essential resource for (future?) MINI owners:

mini-forum German language Mini discussion board. Shouts go out to everybody over there - guys you don't know how much you've helped me already :) You're the best!